Parenting Styles of Eating and Weight

Parents have a strong influence on their children’s eating behaviors and attitudes toward food. In early childhood, parental influence is overarching. Yet even in adolescence, parental approaches to regulating their children’s eating behaviors can have a strong bearing on their children’s health outcomes, psychological health, and predilection towards eating disorders. Moreover, parents may exhibit different attitudes and beliefs regarding their female children than their male children to reflect different gender norms about eating behaviors, etiquette, and body image. In “Why do mothers encourage their children to control their weight?” Schreiber, Kesztyüs, Wirt, Erkelenz, et al (2014) found that mothers more strongly encourage their female children to control their eating or to lose weight than they do to their male children. However, the results were only true for mothers with children of normal weight. Interestingly, mothers who had boy or girl children who were either underweight or overweight did not exhibit differences in the ways they addressed their children’s eating or weight. Mothers encouraged their female children who were underweight, normal weight, or overweight to control their eating to discourage weight gain, whereas they did not do the same for boys.
The Schreiber, Kesztyüs, Wirt, Erkelenz, et al (2014) study focused on German children in primary school, a relatively narrow population sample. Although the authors draw connections with prior and related studies conducted on potentially more diverse American populations, the study does need to be taken as representative of German society only. Cultural differences in attitudes toward eating, in gender roles and norms, and in perceptions of body and body aesthetics will be significant factors determining parental attitudes and the ways parents encourage their children to control their eating and/or weight. Furthermore, the Schreiber, Kesztyüs, Wirt, Erkelenz, et al (2014) study focuses primarily on maternal controls on their children’s eating and dietary habits. Many families will have a stronger paternal influencer on eating and body image. As Parletta (n.d.) points out, parenting styles will also have a strong bearing on childhood eating behaviors, attitudes toward food, and body image. Different levels of demandingness and responsiveness to children may have an influence on feeding patterns and food choices.
The Schreiber, Kesztyüs, Wirt, Erkelenz, et al (2014) article suggests differential control for males versus females, with specific long-term physical consequences. Although childhood obesity is a problem in multiple social and cultural contexts, mothers who pay more attention to controlling the eating habits and weight of their female children may be neglecting their male children. Male children who are not encouraged to adopt healthy eating habits may therefore be at higher risk for developing obesity-related health problems. Maternal influence on weight control will impact female children in long-term ways, too. For example, an overbearing or authoritarian parenting style means the parent “tends to be domineering and controlling” and is more “likely to take control over what the child eats, which doesn’t help to empower children to make healthy choices or learn to trust their own instincts,” (Parletta, n.d., p. 10). The female child living with an authoritarian parent who does not develop her own parenting style or attitude towards food and eating might practice the same type of parenting styles and food-related parenting habits when she is a parent.
Future research should uncover the differences between maternal and paternal influences over children of different genders. The additional variables of social or peer pressure, media imagery exposure, cultural norms, and school or educator influence may also be included to illuminate the ways adults can instill healthier attitudes toward food. Preventing unhealthy eating habits as early as possible can reduce risk factors not just for obesity but also for eating disorders.







References

Parletta, N (n.d.). The role of parents and schools in promoting healthy dietary behaviors. Nutridate.
Schreiber, A. C., Kesztyüs, D., Wirt, T., Erkelenz, N., Kobel, S., & Steinacker, J. M. (2014). Why do mothers encourage their children to control their weight? A cross-sectional study of possible contributing factors. BMC Public Health, 14(450), 1-7.